Archbishop Nathan Soderblom‘s name came to my attention via the calendars of saints of The Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), where his feast day is July 12. I have moved his feast one day, however, for I have booked July 12 fully. According to my rules for the Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, the maximum number of observations for one day is four.

Lars Olof Jonathan “Nathan” Soderblom debuted at Trono, Halsingland, Sweden, on January 15, 1866. His mother was the Danish-born Sophie Blume Soderblom, daughter of a medical doctor. Our saint’s father was the Reverend Jonas Soderblom (1823-1901), descended from farmers. The Lutheran priest was a Pietist. Young Nathan studied at Hudiksvall then at the University of Uppsala, starting at the latter in 1883. He graduated with degrees in Oriental languages (1886) and theology (1892). Soderblom, who had grown up with a strict form of Lutheranism, liberalized during his postsecondary education. This fact disturbed his father, who feared that our saint was becoming a freethinker.

Soderblom became a Lutheran priest. He, ordained in 1893, served first as a hospital chaplain in Uppsala. In 1894 he married Anna Forsell (1870-1955). The couple had twelve children, eleven whom survived to adulthood. Each of the three surviving daughters married a future bishop of the Church of Sweden, and one of the eight sons entered the ordained ministry. From 1894 to 1901 Soderblom was the chaplain to the Swedish legation in Paris and pastor to Swedish seamen at Calais and Dunkirk. The busy clergyman also earned his doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1901. The focus of his study was comparative eschatology. His dissertation was La vie future d’apres le Mazdeisme, about Persian religion.

Soderblom combined support for foreign missions with advocacy for studies in comparative religion. He was a Christian, of course–a Lutheran, to be specific–and he thought that more people should convert to Christianity. Our saint also affirmed the proposition that missionaries should understand and not destroy the cultures in which they worked.

This point might seem obvious to you, O reader, but, as many people who train missionaries know well, a host of missionaries (in successive generations) destroyed cultures and functioned as more effective agents of earthly principalities than of the Kingdom of God for centuries. Thus they harmed the cause for which they professed to labor.

Soderblom, an expert in Oriental religions, became a professor of theology at the University of Uppsala in 1901. In Gudstrons uppkomst (1914) our saint argued that the fundamental concept of religion is the idea of the holy, not the concept of God. For Soderblom, a pacifist, religion was properly a means of making peace. Our saint, a professor at Uppsala until 1914, taught in Leipzig, Germany, in 1912-1914. Then he received a major promotion.

From 1914 to his death in 1931 Soderblom served as the Archbishop of Uppsala, the primate of the Church of Sweden. His appointment proved controversial for more than one reason. For years our saint had to contend with allegations of heresy. They continued to follow him. Furthermore, Soderblom was not a bishop prior to becoming archbishop. That was not unprecedented in Christian history, but, as a matter of practice, most archbishops have been bishops first. Certain Swedish bishops thought that they were more qualified than Soderblom. Our saint performed his duties ably and continued his studies, including with regard to the original teaching of Martin Luther, as opposed to subsequent developments in Lutheran theology (such as Pietism).

Soderblom was also an ardent ecumenist. He had a great interest in liturgy and in burgeoning liturgical renewal in Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Roman Catholicism. He also favored Christian unity, but not as any cost. Soderblom coined the term “evangelical Catholicism,” meaning, in his words:

It would be ungodly to sacrifice anything essential in our faith and our divine heritage for the cause of unity.

The author of Christian Fellowship (1923) emphasized Christian unity as a method for working toward global peace. He organized the first World Council on Life and Work in 1925, inviting leaders of Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican/Episcopal churches to attend. This gathering began the process that culminated in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948. For his ecumenical work Soderblom, who had officiated at the state funeral of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.

In 1931 the ailing Soderblom delivered the Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh, Scotland. The published version of these lectures was The Living God: Basal Forms of Personal Religion (1933). Our saint died at Uppsala on July 12, 1931. He was 65 years old.

The article on Soderblom in the 1968 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica concluded:

A saintly man, a scholar, and a great ecclesiastical statesman, he had a remarkable personal influence on those who knew him.